Dell’s Column: January 21, 2024

Written by: Dell Jackson on January 21, 2024

Dell’s column
Jan 21, 2024

Mid Penn/LL showcase
LLhoops produced live stream of the games on the NFHS network. Thanks to Bruce Badgley for arranging and producing the 5 game broadcast. We also had TJ Eck write a wrap of the games. TJ also made his debut on the LLhoops network for broadcasting the Penn Manor/Lower Dauphin game.

Here is the LINK for all of the games. You must be a NFHS subscriber to view. The links will take you to the sign up page.

It was a tough day for Cedar Crest as the Falcons fell behind big to a very good Central Dauphin team – 22 at the half. Crest cut the deficit to 16 at one point but could not cut the lead to a place where the Rams had to sweat the result. On a good note- Cedar Crest’s fan of the game, Nick Lambros, got a lot of love on the twitter site 🙂

Many apologies  to Aaron Enterline, as Dell seems to get one of his old students, Jason, in his head when typing in names. EEEEeech.

Thanks to all for checking my spelling🙂

Sponsors for llhoops.
Thanks to Buzgon Davis -Law Group for sponsoring the Cedar Crest and Lebanon team pages.
Dell says all the time, ‘We cannot bring to our followers a free sources site without sponsor support.”
Thanks to all sponsors!

LLhoops new design
We made several small tweaks to the site last week. The scoreboard section is where we will be posting all our scores from this point going forward. Click on scoreboard and then the week. Results will appear as soon as we post them. Also, we will be updating postponements on the scoreboard page.

LLhoops Streaming
Past games that we streamed are located by clicking on this banner on the site.

The coming week (Jan 22-28) we have scheduled 2 games. Approximate tip time is 7:30
Wed . Jan 24 – Columbia @ Lancaster Mennonite
Friday Jan. 26 – Hempfield @ Penn Manor

LLhoops site info.
So far in January, we are averaging around 600 viewers per day. Our page views are around 2,000 per day with some days a bit better than others (Fridays!). Our writers put in links to the articles via twitter /“X”. Many of our followers are visiting the site via X, but more than half are doing searches for LLHoops. The nice thing is that there are few other LLhoops around on the web, so we are pretty much on the top of every ones search lists. With games being played most days, our content is updated constantly. People can search the entire site, going back to 2017, when we first used WordPress, GoDaddy and Circle W Sports, by using the magnifying glass icon on the top of each page.

LL Tie- Breakers
Here is the LINK for the official tie breakers. In case of a tie, there will be no play-off games for section titles.
Seeding for playoff spots will be based off head to head games, then to District 3 power rankings.

Around the LL
NOTE: Statistics via our friends at LancasterOnline.com and, of course,  Llhoops.com
As we enter the last 3 weeks of the season, most of the races are a matter of deciding which teams get seeded in the LL tournament.

Section 1..
Cedar Crest (5-0) sits atop of the section with Hempfield (4-1) nipping at its heals. The Falcons, who beat Hempfield 70-51 over one month ago, travels to Hempfield Monday. On Tuesday Crest visits Penn Manor (2-3). In their first game, Crest clobbered the Ethan Benne-less Comets 72-28. Another key match-up will occur on Friday as Hempfield travels to Penn Manor. The Comets need a sweep of their games to get back into the race for a second place slot in the LL’s. Hempfield with a “W” vs Crest can tie for first. There are a bunch of possibilities, but, when the dust clears this week, we should have a pretty good idea of where each team stands for the LL’s and possibly for the district tournament.

Let’s take a look at each team (info from LLhoops and LNP online)

Cedar Crest (10-3 overall)
The Falcons feature one of the taller if not the tallest lineups in the LL. Twin towers, Aiden Schomp (8 ppg) and RJ Young (8 ppg), are listed at 6’6”. Power forward, Fernando Marquez (15 ppg), comes in at 6’2”. The Falcons are averaging 62 points per game and giving up 50 on the defensive end.
Best W- Wilson 70-61
Toughest Loss- Central Dauphin 80-57

Hempfield (9-5 overall)
The Knights entered the season as a team in flux. Hempfield was coming off an LL title and lost 4/5 starters. One of those starters, Ben Troyer, needed to carry the weight for Hempfield to contend. CHECK. Troyer, a York College commit, is 6’4” and a scoring machine (22 ppg). The development of Spencer Troyer (10 ppg), 6’4” sophomore, has helped the Knights to become contenders for a Section 1 crown. Nick Deeg (7ppg), 5’9” sn. guard, runs the team from his point guard position. The Knights are stingy on the defensive end giving up 49 points per game.
Best W- Wilson 47-42
Toughest Loss- Governor Mifflin 35-24

Penn Manor (11-5 overall)
The Comets cannot be mentioned without props paid to Ethan Benne. Benne, 6’6” sn, is headed to Millersville next season. Benne, much like Ben Troyer from Hempfield, can score inside and outside (18 three balls on the season). He also has major hops as he blocks shots in every game he plays. Michael Lower (13ppg) , 6’ jn, provides the Comets with a perimeter threat- 36 triples on the season. Dhamir Wesley, 6’5” sn, enters this week with a 7 ppg. average.
Best W- Warwick 68-59
Toughest Loss – Hempfield 63-43

Side note: TWP and McCaskey have the same Section 1 record as PM at 2-3.

Section 2
WARWICK…The Warriors took to the road and defeated their closest contenders (Ephrata (63-46) and Manheim Central (73-51)) The Warriors are super scary when hitting from the perimeter. They have been there and done that 🙂

Section 3
Octorara is one game up on LS- biggest W was a road win vs LS (61-56 in OT). The LS Pioneers are right there as they are on a 4 game winning streak. The Pios took down Cocalico 52-46 to more or less make this section a 2 team race. LS travels to Octorara Feb. 2nd.

Section 4
Both Columbia and Lancaster Mennonite are unbeaten in Section 4 play. They meet for the first time Feb. 24. LLhoops live stream game!

LL finals..
LLhoops will be live streaming both the girls game (Feb 15th) and the boys game (Feb 16th).
Sponsorship deadline for the games is Jan 31st. Contact webmaster@llhoops for more information.
We will be adding to the LL playoffs category as we approach the LL tournament.

Enjoy the games this week as there are games scheduled for every day this week (Jan 22-28).

~Dell Jackson

Follow LLhoops on Twitter @LLhoops